Monsoon slips into red; 3% deficient rains since June

NEW DELHI: After an upbeat start, India's monsoon slipped into the red this week with the country receiving 3% deficient rains since its onset in June. As per statistics released by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), eight of the 36 sub-divisions had received deficient rainfall in a month when farmers take up sowing in a big way.

For the week ending July 13, the monsoon rains were 19% below normal but the weather office has presented an outlook of fairly widespread rainfall over many parts of the country barring southeast peninsula for the next five days. Southeast peninsular region is expected to get scattered rains during the period.

Last year, rainfall was 24% below normal in the week to July 14 after a weak start in June, but rains picked up in the remaining period of the four-month monsoon and ended as normal.

In April, the IMD had forecast normal monsoon for the June-September season and pegged the rainfall at 98% of the Long Period Average of 89 cm.